About Insight Associates

Who we are

Insight Associates are Company Finance Managers specialising in the provision of proactive commercial hands-on financial management to businesses. Typically working in situations involving financial distress as a result of rapid growth or potential failure, or high growth early stage situations needing a firm foundation for the future.

Founded in 1992 the firm has extensive experience of building and managing the finance controls, systems and processes needed in any business, as well as managing companies through extensive corporate turnaround situations.

Insight Associates is an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Practice.

We firmly believe that every business needs a Finance Director, and good strong financial management and controls if it is to survive, and aim to provide a ready solution to achieve this.

We differ from conventional firms of accountants in that we are all industry experienced professionals, who have significant first hand experience of working in and managing smaller businesses. We are not auditors, tax specialists or technical wizards. We are practical hands-on specialists who take a shirt-sleeves approach to getting the job done.

Garry Mumford FCCA - Director

Garry is a highly experienced finance manager/director. Having held a number of senior financial roles in various organisations, including Finance Directorships in independent and family owned businesses, Garry was one of the founding partners of Insight Associates in 1992.

He has significant experience in change management, turnarounds, systems development and implementation, and company acquisitions and disposals, as well as being a skilled facilitator in strategic planning and development situations. Garry is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), member of the Institute of Directors, and a director of the Turnaround Management Association in the UK.

Claire Ansbridge - Director

Claire has a wealth of experience in traditional commercial and industrial backgrounds, having held key financial roles in a number of organisations with a wide variety of responsibilities.

She is extremely pragmatic and focused, and as such makes a skilled project leader and team builder. As a clear thinker she has a track record of being able to deliver project objectives, and at the same time build strong and lasting relationships with our clients.

Since joining Insight Associates in 2002, she has led a number of turnaround and change management projects very successfully, receiving strong plaudits from our clients.

Simon Hammond BA FCCA - Finance Manager

Simon joined Insight Associates from Plymouth University in 2003 having gained a "high achiever" Degree in Accounting and Finance. He is also qualified with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

During his time at University, Simon gained hands-on experience in various situations both in the corporate and accountancy environments. Since joining Insight Associates Simon has gained extensive experience and skills in our methodologies, processes and systems to a degree where he now works in many of our "outsourced" situations with clients from many different disciplines including IT, sales and marketing, manufacturing, and the automotive industry to name but a few.

Simon works very closely with our clients to ensure their financial management and accounting needs are met on a day-to-day basis, operating to regular deadlines and timescales and is held in very high regard by them. He has gained many accolades from our clients and is accepted as a valued member of their in-house teams.

Shirley Hoy - Office Manager

Shirley is a highly skilled business administrator who, since qualifying, has worked in a variety of roles ranging from New Business Development for the Electronics Industry, PA to a Divisional Director of Marconi, International Product Licence Approvals for the Pharmaceutical Industry, Advertising Sales for a Glossy Magazine, and various Office Manager roles.
The industries she has worked in have ranged from large well funded multi-nationals through to small distressed businesses so she has a good perspective of the benefits and difficulties faced by both.

In the majority of her administration roles there has been an element of 'marketing' which has given her the opportunity to expand on her creative writing and ideas skills.
Since joining Insight Associates as Office Manager early in 2003 she has been material in coordinating and promoting Insight's sponsored networking group 'The Bishop's Stortford Breakfast Club'.

Shirley is responsible for the back office functions here at Insight Associates resolving everyday general office issues to ensure the smooth running of the business. She is responsible for our own accounts processing and invoicing.

The remainder of her time here at Insight is spent within the marketing arm of the business. She is actively involved in copy writing, marketing themes, and preparing for seminars and exhibitions and thoroughly enjoys the variety and challenges they bring.
On a personal level her hobbies include travel and photography.

Theresa Thake - Finance Assistant

Theresa joined Insight Associates in February 2006 as an Office Assistant with a view to further developing her office based skills and to move away from the retail sector where she already had extensive experience.

Having had the opportunity to get involved in some of the accounting functions of the office including credit control and sales and purchase ledger processing she decided to move her focus and concentrate on developing her accounting skills.

Theresa successfully completed Pitman Training Certificates and International Association of Book-keepers qualifications in Book Keeping, Purchase Ledger, Sales Ledger, and Final Accounts I and II receiving 3 distinctions along the way.

In her new role as a Finance Assistant she has received further in-house training on bank reconciliations and daily cash flow management and is eager to gain as much experience as she can in order to fully support our client base.

On the social side of things Theresa loves spending time with her family and taking her German Shepherd dog for long countryside walks.

Simon Hay - Finance Assistant

Simon is a fully qualified accounting technician who is currently studying towards his professional examinations with ACCA.

He is a highly motivated self starter who has gained a wealth of experience working in both the UK and overseas and joined the Insight team in September 2010.

Recent roles have helped him to hone his accounting skills and he is experienced in using a vast range of accounting packages.

Simon is well travelled and during his time in Australia he played a key role in the successful relocation of an organisation in Melbourne with critical timescales and deadlines.

As an experienced floor manager in a multi-national franchise organisation he is used to customer facing roles and is adept at reacting positively to rapidly changing client demands.

Hayley Gregory - Office Assistant

Hayley is the newest member of the Insight team having joined us in November 2010 as an Office Assistant responsible for providing administrative support for the back office functions.

She has extensive 'customer facing' experience and her previous roles have demanded a high level of client interaction and excellent one to one service delivery - qualities which she uses on a daily basis whilst looking after visitors to the Insight offices and as the first point of contact for incoming telephone calls.

Her naturally bright, cheery and confident disposition is ideally suited to the role of helping to host the Bishop's Stortford Breakfast Club which is a networking group that Insight Associates sponsors in support of the local business community.

Hayley's excellent Maths and English skills play a vital role in the continued development of her accounting and marketing support skills.

Our Clients

We usually work with independent businesses with a turnover between £1m and £15m, and also have experience of providing interim management resource into larger concerns.

These businesses have often grown without any direct financial management skills being available to them, and as a result find that they are in need of strong internal controls and regular and reliable management information. These weaknesses are generally a contributory factor to the financial difficulties businesses often face at the time we are introduced into the situation.

Recent studies suggest that many business owners are unaware of the value of improving financial management within their enterprises. Many lack regular, reliable and relevant financial and other business information.

Our aim is to work with clients to turn the business around, and develop it into a financially strong and long term viable concern.

If you would like to learn more please complete our enquiry form.